Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held a telephone conversation with his Kazakh counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov on Tuesday, discussing preparations for the Fifth Caspian Summit, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The two foreign ministers discussed various aspects of preparations for the Fifth Caspian Summit due in Kazakhstan, bearing in mind the decisions made by the top diplomats of the five Caspian states at the Moscow meeting on December 4-5, 2017," the statement reads.
For many years, agreements between the Russian Empire (later replaced by the Soviet Union) and Iran defined the legal status of the Caspian Sea. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan emerged as subjects of international law and it became necessary for the five countries to agree on the status of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian states continue to negotiate the details of a convention, which is planned to be presented to the heads of state at their summit in Kazakhstan.
The legal status of the Caspian Sea remains the key issue discussed at the regional countries’ summits. The five countries’ leaders held their first meeting in Turkmenistan’s capital of Ashgabat in 2002. The second Caspian summit was held in the Iranian capital of Tehran in 2007, while Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku hosted the third summit in 2010, and Russia’s Astrakhan hosted the fourth summit in 2014.
The defense ministries of Caspian littoral states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan) are successfully interacting and will hold joint drills in the region this summer, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced in early December last year. Russia’s top diplomat made this statement after a meeting of the Caspian littoral states’ foreign ministers.
"We positively assessed interaction of the defense ministries in the Caspian Sea region," Lavrov noted.
"This year, actually all the littoral states have exchanged friendly visits by the navies’ ships. The Sea Cup 2017 international contest held in summer was a big success. Next year, joint drills [by the Caspian littoral states] are planned," Russia’s top diplomat said.
"Also, a draft agreement on preventing incidents in the Caspian Sea is at an advanced stage of approval. The draft is the basic document for developing a solid system of confidence-building measures in the region," Lavrov noted.
This document will be submitted together with the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea to the 5th Caspian summit in Kazakhstan next year for approval, the Russian foreign minister said.
Reported by Tass (Russia).
